For the second week in a row, abuse allegations involving celebrities are making headlines and stirring up discussion around domestic violence on social media.
In a lawsuit filed Thursday singer Cassie accused hip-hop mogul Sean “Diddy” Combs, of years of abuse, trafficking and even raping her in her own home when she tried to leave him in 2018. According to Business Insider, the two started dating in 2007, shortly after Cassie released her first album under Combs’ label Bad Boy Records.
Abuse weaved into their decade-long relationship early on, according to Cassie’s lawsuit, which said she was introduced to drugs, often beaten to the point that she bled and had black eyes, and was forced to engage in sexual acts with male prostitutes while Combs’ watched and masturbated. The lawsuit also alleges that Combs blew up rapper Kid Cudi’s car because he tried to pursue her – which his rep confirmed with the New York Times.
Combs joins a growing list of powerful music executives who have been accused of sexual abuse, including Russell Simmons. Historically these types of cases have not always garnered the support that we find today, specifically in hip-hop. The Louder than a Riot podcast cites a 2005 sexual harassment case against hip-hop magazine The Source as “hip hop’s missed opportunity for a Me Too movement.” Activist Tarana Burke, who founded #MeToo, specifically calls out the hip hop industry for being left out of the movement she created.
“No matter what we do, you have some way in which men will silence [us], will not recognize we have these moments where we get diminished. And you’re going to have people who will excoriate me. They’ll be like, ‘You just want to take down our men’,” Tarana Burke said in an April interview on the podcast.
One in three women experience physical violence at the hand of a partner, according to the National Coalition Against Domestic Violence, accounting for 15% of all violence crime. The number is low…
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